


I Remember

by DisgruntledPelican



Series: Rose's in Bloom [2]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Personal Growth, Sibling Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 06:43:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19785364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisgruntledPelican/pseuds/DisgruntledPelican
Summary: Alexis really couldn’t believe that her mother didn’t remember the emotional state Sebastien Raine left David in. Even Alexis, who was in and out of the country during David’s mall-pretzel-and-Bridget-Jones-Diary phase, knew that Sebastien had truly hurt David.





	I Remember

**Author's Note:**

> First things first... thank you, again and forever, to Lucianowriter for being my wonderful beta and helping me to navigate the complicated world of writing!
> 
> Second, this is my first time writing about an episode, and this episode has been written about quite often. I wanted to take some time to explore how the sibling dynamic would function during Sebastien's visit. The conflicted *look* that Alexis gives David at the end of the open for this episode was the inspiration for this!
> 
> Lastly, I have a few more stories in mind for this sweet sibling pair, so I have decided to make this a series. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“....but Sebastien Raine puts his subjects first and he told me I must respect that.”

“Okay, you know what? I don’t care. So you can do  _ whatever _ you’d like.” David said, unconvincingly.

“I could cancel, but you’ve just told me you don’t care. So now, I have no choice but to meet him!”

Alexis and David shared a knowing look. Alexis really couldn’t believe that her mother didn’t remember the emotional state Sebastien Raine left David in. Even Alexis, who was in and out of the country during David’s mall-pretzel-and-Bridget-Jones-Diary phase, knew that Sebastien had truly hurt David. His relationship with Sebastien was the last relationship David had before their move to Schitt's Creek. And now that she’s thinking about it, Alexis is pretty sure that when the government invaded their home, David was probably still healing from the damage Sebastien had caused.  _ Is that why he was at home instead of in New York? _

Alone in their room, Alexis wasn’t exactly sure how to approach the subject. 

“David, are you okay?”

“How would you feel if mom invited Stavros to come hang out?” He spoke while waving has hands around. 

“I don’t really think that counts… I wasn’t… I don’t know. I didn’t have any emotions involved in that relationship.”

_ Emotions.  _

David definitely had some emotions wrapped up in his relationship with Sebastien. Unfortunately, for David, he was the only one in the relationship with invested emotions. 

“You know what? I’ll be fine. I’m planning on spending my day at the store. With any luck, I won’t see him.”

A bold claim. They both knew that wasn’t true. There was no way Sebastien was planning to come and go from Schitt's Creek without an attempt at ruining some other part of David.

************************

Sitting alone in a corner booth at Cafe Tropical, David was using a Thesaurus app on his phone to look up all the possible meanings of the words “healthy” and “brave”.  _ What the hell was all that supposed to mean?  _

“I am so proud of you, David!” Alexis exclaimed, wildly, out of nowhere.

“Because I only ordered one lunch combo? I really wanted a club sandwich with this, but Twyla said they were out of bread, so...”

“Stevie said he came by the hotel. You saw him. And now you’re here. Still in town. And only eating one lunch!” Alexis knew that her hands were putting in extra work at this point. Pride isn’t something she expressed often. She wanted to make sure David knew she really meant it. To be honest, she fully expected to find David at the store or in the motel deep in an anxiety spiral or shame eating. Or both. 

Luckily, for David, Alexis left before Twyla brought him his double order of chocolate cake, with two scoops of ice cream, extra chocolate sauce, and three cherries.  _ Did she say she was going to teach old people to dance tonight? _

Either Stevie was too enamored with Sebastien’s homeless appeal to notice, or she simply chose not to tell Alexis about the remark Sebastien made about their “unfinished business”. 

David had a plan to avoid stumbling into any type of “unfinished business” with Sebastien. He could easily find enough work to do at the store to keep him occupied until… well, forever really. He would leave the store with Patrick at their normal time. He didn’t want to miss out on their usual flirting _ … no… banter.. _ . that followed them out the door. He would head over to the cafe, get some dinner to-go, and make his way back to his favorite spot in town to enjoy the rest of his evening, surrounded by the products and aesthetic he loved so much. The body milks need organizing by size and they just got a shipment of clothing that needed tended to. 

This plan was actually the most genius idea he’d had. Not only would he avoid Sebastien, his mother, and the motel... but surely all of this extra work would impress Patrick, right? 

“David, hiya buddy!” Ray exclaimed, wildly, out of nowhere. 

“Uh, hi... Ray.”  _ Maybe if I keep looking at my dessert, Ray will give me some alone time with it? _

“I am so excited for our town, David!” Ray scooted into the booth across from David

Apparently, David wasn’t getting alone time with his dessert.

“Uh, why?”

“Well, not only do I have some new business ventures I am exploring, and you and Patrick are creating that new and exciting store together... now our little town is being discovered by another photographer!”

_ Another photographer… cute, Ray. _

“Schitt's Creek is not being photographed, Ray. Sorry to disappoint.”

“Really? Because when I was showing some land to a farmer looking to expand their lot, I saw your mom and that friend of hers. She told Council all about him this morning. He was taking picture after picture of her in the outskirts of our wonderful town!”

“He was, um.. he was taking pictures of her?”

“Of course! That’s why he’s here, right?”

_ Fuck… so much for impressing Patrick.  _

************************

“David… is that your leather jacket? Ohhh my god! Are you finally going out with that sweet button?”

“Skydive without a parachute, Alexis.” 

“This is exciting David! Ughh I knew you were crushing on him!”

“Patrick is just my business partner. He is not a button, he is not into me, I am not going to see him tonight.”

“I notice you didn’t say that  _ you _ weren’t into  _ him _ , David.”

“I am not going to see Patrick,” David snapped, a little louder than he expected. “Please don’t talk about him,” he breathed out with a much smaller voice. Then he sighed, “especially tonight.” 

David didn’t want to even think about his intelligent, sassy, and beautiful business partner right now. Patrick was too pure to be associated with what David had to do tonight. His eyes were searching the room for anything else to focus on in order to avoid Alexis’ knowing gaze.

“David...” Alexis started.

“Alexis.. Dont. You won’t understand.”

“Won’t understand what, David? Self-sabotage? Recklessness? Be serious.”

David knew that Alexis would probably understand if she knew the whole situation. Actually, she would understand better than anyone his need to protect his family. He also knew that Alexis’ relationship with their mother was fragile, healing, and basically nonexistent before moving to Schitt's Creek. He wasn’t about to be the one to mess that up. If Alexis knew that David was going to Sebastien’s room tonight in order to get a memory card, full of pictures of  _ Moira Rose in Schitt's Creek…  _ no, Alexis would not know. 

“I don’t know what to tell you, Alexis. I just need to do this. For myself.” 

There. That wasn’t a lie, technically? Sure, it wasn’t the whole truth. But he’d made so much progress in truth-telling during the past few years, certainly this much truth still counted as a success?

“You don’t need to do this, David! He’s a monster, you said it yourself! He hurt you... for months, David.”

“You don’t think I remember, Alexis? You don’t think I remember how I thought my relationship with him was different than the disasters that came before him?” David was pacing the room, gesturing wildly. Alexis just stood, watching him, and listened. “I remember everything between us. Every beautiful word. Every lingering touch and glance in my direction.” He paused, choosing his words carefully, now. “And I remember all the lies. Every manipulation. I remember… every time he hurt me. I remember.”  _ What was it going to take to forget? _

“David. I know you remember, I just don’t understand why you have to do  _ this _ ?” 

“I know what I am doing. I know what I’m doing  _ this time _ , Alexis.” 

And with that, he left their room. He made a right turn out the door and Alexis thought that she had never seen him look more determined... and detached.

********************

David wasn’t expecting to return to a room smelling of… grease and syrup?

“Alexis, what the hell happened in here?”

“I thought maybe after you showered, you’d want some food. I didn’t get eggs, because those get gross too fast. But I got you some waffles. And bacon and sausage. Also, some hash browns.”

“That is… surprisingly thought-”

“He took pictures of her, didn’t he?” Alexis interrupted. “I heard her talking to dad last night after his poker game.” 

“It doesn’t matter now.” David spoke as he headed toward their bathroom door.

“How could she let him do that?” 

David was ready for his shower, which was long overdue at this point. He was ready to be clean of last night. “It’s not her fault. It’s his. This was  _ his fault _ , Alexis.”

  
  


When David got out of the shower, Alexis was finishing up her yogurt and was ready to leave for school. She turned to David before leaving their room and was sure to make eye contact.

“What happened last time was his fault, too, David…”

David swallowed his oversized bite of hashbrowns.

“Thank you, Alexis… for breakfast.”

********************

After eating all the food Alexis got him, David took another shower and headed to work. He was still able to make it there in decent time. Really, any time before 10am should be considered a victory for David. 

Patrick was there to greet him with a breathy, “hi”. David didn’t think he would ever get over the butterflies that one word, coming from Patrick, brought him. As they worked throughout the morning, David’s mind wandered back to some of his time with Sebastien in New York. He tried not to think about it, but he’s only human.  _ What was it going to take to forget? _

David thought about all the things he did for Sebastien to earn the beautiful words. He thought about all the things he let Sebastien do to him to earn those lingering touches and glances at parties.  _ Why would I ever think those were genuine?  _

“David… David… did you hear me?”

“Hmmm? Oh, sorry.”

“Where’d you go? Everything alright?” Patrick was looking at him like he was truly worried. He put a gentle, friendly hand on David’s shoulder.

_ What did I do to earn that?  _

“Sorry, just got lost in my head for a second.”

“No worries, glad you’re back. Need to talk?”

Patrick removed his hand. 

“Oh god no. No. Thank you, though.”

“I’m headed to the Cafe for a tea. You want your usual?”

“My usual?”

“Yeah, the drink you order every time I make a trip to the Cafe for us…?”

“You know my usual.” David noted, out loud. 

“Of course I do, David. I’m not the one zoning out during work hours.” Patrick teased and shot David a winning smirk. 

“Yeah. Yes. Thank you, Patrick. For getting my usual.”  _ Ugh, why do I sound so flustered? _

While Patrick was getting his tea and David’s usual, David took a break from stocking products and thinking about New York. Instead, he looked at his store. This store that he was creating. With Patrick. Patrick who knew David’s usual drink order, which was unsurprisingly complicated. Patrick who had gentle and kind hands. Patrick who was working to make David’s vision of Rose Apothecary come to life. 

Maybe David could forget all the things Sebastien had said and done _to_ him in New York... because he was forever going to remember what Patrick was doing _with_ him in Schitts Creek. Maybe that’s what it would take to forget?  



End file.
